The term learning technology ecosystem has been around for a few years now but I’m not seeing much practical application of it. It could be one of those newish ideas in our industry – we have to talk about it for a few years before we decide we can actually embrace it successfully (hello social learning and mobile learning!)

But after giving this some more thought, I now think the time is right for us to be thinking about a set of integrated tools, content and processes that should work seamlessly together to support organisational learning. eLearning (content) has been around long enough now for us to both want and expect more. And as for the LMS, well that debate will run on and on.

What I do know for sure, is that the trend to have the LMS more and more hidden, is a very real one. It seems that while other technologies have developed – curation tools, user generated content tools, enterprise social learning tools, not to mention the myriad of learning and productivity apps now available, the good ‘ole LMS, even with a shiny new talent management badge on it, remains quite traditional and dare I say ‘locked down’.

The new open systems – LRS, xAPI and LTI

If you are anything like me, you’ll probably have heard of LRS and xAPI, but you might struggle with LTI? This term was new to me until a few weeks ago; it stands for Learning Tools Interoperability. So think of third party rich content platforms like Khan Academy, TEDEd, Code Academy etc. These tools can be bolted together to allow single sign-on for all your staff. And no, this isn’t about formalising what some people would call informal learning. And it isn’t about tracking everything your staff does either. It’s about providing easy to access resources in a central location to facilitate self-service learning in its truest sense.

Instead of relying on procuring a complex and expensive LMS that could go out of date quickly, we think in terms of flexible bolt-on technologies. When used together, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. What better way to get to self-service learning than to encourage your staff to use best in class curation or social learning apps that are part of your total learning technology ecosystem rather than just accepting what ‘comes’ with the LMS. Imagine following the high performers in your organisation as they curate the best content paths and share their insights in a way that could never compare to ‘click-next’ eLearning.

So there you have it – some initial thoughts from me on what a learning technology ecosystem could give us. Join us Thursday, February 25th to share your input.